The Legion
by Coco-Rina
Summary: Three girls and a world full of unknown dangers. What happens when they try to learn about whats around them? Good things? Bad things? If the deadly ones who watch over them have any say in this, things definitly can't end well.
1. Chapter 1

"What did you two do now?"

Two girls looked up into the pale gray eyes of Mr. Brown. They were full of exasperation at seeing them in his office… again. Granted they had ended up in here numerous times in their freshman year at the school, but the vast majority of those incidents hadn't actually been their fault. The students that attended this school appeared to have something against them: the girls often found themselves accused of doing things they had no prior knowledge of.

"Mr. Brown _we_ didn't do anything, it must have been someone else," one of the girls, Mirax, answered evenly.

"Seriously, you can't believe that it was us," the other girl, Axel, said in support.

"It so often holds true that we're innocent. Why can't you be a little more reluctant to believe the reports of our guilt?" Mirax sounded slightly offended.

"We proved our innocence all those other times and we can do it again!" Axel exclaimed, perhaps a little too fervently.

"Alright, let me speak," Mr. Brown cut in softly.

His quiet tone was enough to silence the protests of the girls.

"I don't doubt your innocence in this instance. I already know who did it. I wanted to see your reactions, and to see if you knew."

"So, can we leave now?" Axel interrupted.

Mirax winced visibly and glanced at her teacher. Axel was courteous to all their teachers except Mr. Brown. With him she was incredibly brash, sometimes to the point of being downright rude. She saw Mr. Brown glance at her as she winced, but he didn't react except for slightly narrowing his eyes. She knew the small movement would be stored in the man's amazingly accurate memory.

"Such disrespect. Perhaps I should give you a detention to teach you a lesson. That is my job, is it not, to teach?"

"You wouldn't dare," Axel stated confidently.

Mirax winced again and started to consider a way to rebuke her friend without getting caught. She had seen Mr. Brown angry, and had no desire to repeat the experience. If nothing else, there were no witnesses.

"Oh, but I would dare, and I will if you decide to continue on like this," the volume of his voice didn't increase but the implied threat definitely did.

Mr. Brown's increasingly dangerous anger level was obvious to Mirax, but Axel must have been blind, oblivious, or very angry because she continued to argue. Mirax tried desperately to intervene, but was unsuccessful. She was just considering going to Mrs. Brown for help when she remembered that she was in a meeting. She sighed and watched helplessly and braced herself as the two brought themselves closer to the unavoidable flash point she knew was coming.

"I have had quite enough of you and your nuisances."

His voice was deathly quiet, but was enough to stop Axel dead. As the girls watched with wide eyes Mr. Brown's eyes began to dilate. They changed from the grey they knew all too well to a molten red. Gold flecks were scattered close to his irises. The transformation occurred in seconds. The girls glanced at each other and each saw their own fear in each others' eyes. There was no way this was possible. Could they really be right? Could their theory really be true?

"If I ever need to reprimand you again…"

Mr. Brown's voice had gradually risen to what was nearly a yell. As he finished to word "again" his hand came up then sharply down on his wooden desk. All the eyes in the room followed his hand down, including his own. A deep crack appeared in the wood when it made contact with his hand. Axel let out a strangled gasp and Mirax's eyes widened even more in shock. That had been truly unexpected. Extremely peculiar.

"Get out," Mr. Brown said. It wasn't a suggestion.

"Are you sure?" Mirax managed.

"I merely lost control for a moment. I'll be fine. Go home. Now."

As soon as the girls walked out into the hallway, Mr. Brown collapsed into his desk chair and sighed. That couldn't happen again, he was in enough danger as it was. He heard a door open and looked up. His wife walked through the door in the wall separating their classrooms, looking slightly harried. When she saw him in the chair she stopped immediately.

"You look awful," she commented, looking taken aback.

"Thanks," he responded dryly.

"No seriously, who was it today?"

He sighed and glared at his cracked desk, "Axel."

"Oh, dear. Mirax too, of course."

"Of course. They're inseparable."

Mrs. Brown walked over to stand at her husband's shoulder and looked at his desk as well. She gasped when she saw the crevasse left by the rock hard force of his hand.

"You didn't Ken. Tell me did this after they left. Please." She grabbed his shoulders and shook him gently, "Tell me they left."

"Unfortunately, no. They both saw it."

"Ken, you're going to give us away! Not just us either. If they find us out they'll eventually make the connection to the others." She sounded panicked.

"Haily, you know it's always been easier for you."

"Sure, but that wood was thick, hard and finished. It will probably alert them to the fact that something isn't right with us."

"Maybe they're not that observant or smart."

"Oh, please. Axel notices everything when you're involved and Mirax is smart enough to figure out that you're slightly stronger than the average man." Her voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"Well then, I'm a master of Karate and can easily break wood. How's that?" He returned her sarcasm.

"No good. Axel is in Karate. She's a black belt."

"I will never understand how you find these things out," Mr. Brown murmured.

"It's called small talk; you ought to try it sometime."

"Why on earth would I waste my time on something like that?" He asked with mock revulsion.

She couldn't help but laugh. Her husband did have a sense of humor, he just didn't let anyone but her see it.

"One more question," Mrs. Brown said, "Did your eyes…?" She left the sentence hanging.

"Yes, I suppose they did," he confirmed, then smoothly removed her hands from his shoulders.

"We're going to be found out."

"Nonsense, they aren't that smart or imaginative. Now let's get outside," Mr. Brown said. "I want to make sure those girls have actually left the premises before we get this thing started."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Axel and Mirax walked down the hallway quickly, getting as much distance between them and Mr. Brown's classroom as possible. He was their history teacher and was married to their English teacher, Mrs. Brown. They both knew a lot about each other's subjects so they often covered each other's classes, especially now that Mrs. Brown had a student teacher. The whole core often taught each others' classes: it seemed like a teacher thing.

The girls practically ran the last few yards to the entryway where Marissa was waiting. She hadn't gotten caught, of course. She wasn't conscious enough to be suspected for anything. The teachers were barely aware of her existence, which suited her just fine. It also could come in handy when they needed to find something out. She was the perfect eavesdropper, and she didn't let her conscious bother her.

"What happened?" She asked her friends the question suspiciously. "You two look as if you died and came back to life."

"I'm convinced my heart stopped in there for at least a minute," Axel commented. "Does that qualify as dead?"

"No," she answered, "Mirax? You okay? You look dazed."

"What? Sorry, I was just thinking about Mr. Brown and muscular strength."

"What?"

"Shut up, you two. Don't talk till we're outside," Axel hissed under her breath.

They walked out the doors and into the oppressively bright sunlight. The fresh air seemed to refresh the group, though, and broke Mirax out of her trance.

"Can we talk now?" Marissa asked Axel.

"Yes," she answered and proceeded to explain all that had happened.

While her friends were talking, Mirax was keeping a close eye on their surroundings. She had a very bad feeling about this whole mess. She had figured out that to break that desk with as little effort as Mr. Brown had you would have to be very strong. Inhumanly so. She didn't trust the Brown's not to come walking through a door at any moment, and to be caught talking about them would be most embarrassing. Almost exactly as she thought that, they walked through the front doors. They appeared to be talking at the same time: Mrs. Brown looked panicked, Mr. Brown looked frustrated.

"It wasn't natural," Axel told Marissa, her voice rising.

"Browns," Mirax murmured and they were all silent as the adults walked up to them.

"What are you still doing here? I told you to get home." Mr. Browns tone suggested at a no-nonsense mood.

"We're just waiting for our ride, she appears to be late," Mirax was quick to respond. They certainly didn't want any more trouble today. Besides they weren't lying really, they were waiting for a ride. She wasn't late though, she was supposed to be here in about five minutes.

"We'll just wait for her with you, shall we?" There wasn't much room for argument in Mr. Brown's voice.

Mrs. Brown looked as if she were debating between embarrassed and horribly stunned. She walked over to Mirax and muttered, "Sorry", under her breath. The two of them went to a bench and discussed a book they were both reading. While they were engrossed in their talk, Axel and Mr. Brown stood stiffly facing the road watching each other out of the corners of their eyes. Both were trying to be discreet about it, and both were failing utterly. Marissa was standing calmly, tossing and catching a baseball. She appeared totally unconcerned.

It seemed to take forever for a car to pull into the drive, and when it did both Axel and her teacher reacted a little too quickly, startling each other with their movement. Mirax chuckled quietly then bid Mrs. Brown goodbye. They both looked in exasperation at their comrades, who were now glaring at one another. Mr. Brown looked murderous, and Axel looked as if you could snap behind her ear and cause her to jump half a meter. They were all immeasurably relieved to see the car.

"Traffic must have been horrible," Mirax said, simply to break the silence.

"I guess so," Mrs. Brown said, trying to contribute.

The students bid their teachers goodbye and then climbed in the car.

As they drove away Mirax whispered, "We need to talk, but not right now."

The implication was obvious; they had to talk, and they needed to do it alone. No parents, no adults, no one but themselves.

At this point they were in it alone.


	2. Chapter 2

"I'm telling ya', he's a vampire," Axel said with finality.

Mirax narrowed her eyes at nothing, and then shook her head. Clearly she was in deep thought. "Vampire is a bit of a stretch, Axel. It might have just been an overreaction."

"Overreaction!?!" Axel's voice rose in frustration. "Well that's the biggest overreaction that I've ever seen! He almost broke that desk in half! You do _not_ see that every day!" She yelled.

"I'm just bringing up possibilities. Your ideas aren't the only ones that are equitable. We can't just jump to conclusions like that. We need to consider all the possibilities," Mirax said in a political tone.

They were in Mirax's bedroom with the door locked and the curtains drawn. Axel was pacing, and Marissa was sitting on the bed throwing a tennis ball at the closed door. Mirax was lounging in her reading chair thinking about the day's events.

"Maybe he's just got a temper problem," Marissa suggested, throwing the ball out of her hand.

"Oh yeah, _sure,_" Axel countered sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, I mean, he's always angry! Have you ever seen him when he's not mad at somebody or something?" Mirax asked.

"Yeah, I have actually," Axel answered.

"When?"

"When he's alone, or with Mrs. Brown."

"Oh, well, you know what I mean," Mirax retorted, discouraged by her friend's stubbornness.

"We should go to dinner. I'm hungry, yo tengo hambre," Marissa stated haphazardly.

"Ya' know what," Axel said turning to face Marissa, "That is a wonderful idea. I'm starving."

"Why are you two constantly thinking about food?" Mirax asked rubbing her temples. They both turned to stare at her with shocked expressions.

"We have these things called stomachs, and they need to be fed!" Axel exclaimed in a haughty tone. Mirax sighed as the three of them headed downstairs for dinner.

Downstairs, they all sat quietly at the old pine dining table. Mirax's mother set the food on the table. Axel and Marissa began eating immediately. Mirax took her time serving herself then slowly began to eat.

Probably still thinking of the Browns, Axel thought. Observing her silent friend from across the round table, Axel wondered about what she had said earlier. Maybe Mirax was right (wouldn't be the first time), vampires was quite a long shot. There were many possible explanations for their teacher's odd behavior. No matter what some students thought, in general, teachers weren't evil. Teachers were weird, though, every one of them. Perhaps Mr. Brown just had a really bad temper.

Reminiscing back to the times they had been around Mr. Brown, Axel noticed that he wasn't really all that fond of anyone but his wife. He seemed to dislike pretty much everything and everyone around him. As she thought this something connected in Axel's mind.

She leaned across the table toward Mirax. "Vampires don't like humans," she whispered, pride swelling in her voice because she had made the connection. Mirax leaned forward as well.

"Metaphorically speaking?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Whatever. But they don't, right?" Axel returned.

"I suppose not. Why?"

"Mr. Brown loathes just about anything he comes in contact with. Vampires can be like that too. Especially the ones that have to live around humans all the time. The similarities are starting to scare me Mirax. We've got to face the facts," Axel hissed over the table. Mirax's expression morphed into shock, her bright green eyes slipping into deep thought yet again.

They both folded back into their chairs. Even though Axel knew the connection wasn't all that strong of evidence, if you could count it as evidence at all, it was a step in the right direction. Yet, if their theory was correct and he was a vampire … maybe that was a bad thing.

Mirax's voice broke into her contemplations. "Okay, you make a good argument. Last time I checked, though, vampires didn't exist. They're myth, legend, folktale, fake," she said hesitantly, reluctant.

"That might be, but you never know," Axel retorted, unconcerned.

"Maybe not vampires then," Marissa said, breaking into their conversation for the first time. "Instead of just vampires, they might be all sorts of demons. We just don't know which."

Mirax and Axel turned towards Marissa with surprised looks on their faces. They weren't used to Marissa's sporadic bursts of wisdom. She often surprised new teachers by raising her hand after days of silence and offering some brilliant insight. They both knew she was probably right.

Mirax hesitated then spoke: "What if other people we know are also mythical creatures?" She looked into both sets of eyes. "What if it is true?"

Marissa shrugged. Axel was confused. She wasn't used to such an advanced level of thought process. She was considered very smart, but it was late and she had processed too much today.

"I don't know," Axel muttered. Talk about stating the obvious. They were probably just as lost as she was. A high-pitched ring came from the kitchen and made them all jump. Mirax's mother walked into the dining room with the black phone in hand.

"It's your mother," she said, handing the phone to Axel.

"Thank you, Mrs. Silver," Axel responded, taking the phone and placing it on her ear. Axel was to walk home immediately. Her cousins were over for a family game night. _Oh, joy!_ She groaned inwardly.

After she had handed the phone back to Mrs. Silver and she was out of hearing range, Mirax confronted her friends.

"Tomorrow, we'll need to keep a close eye on _all _our teachers," she stated. It was more of a demand than a request.

"Why?" Marissa and Axel asked in unison.

"Because. I said so," Mirax answered. She started to clean the table.

"That's not a reason!" Axel argued.

"It is too. In fact: it's a pretty good reason. A better one than you mentally unbalanced fools could come up with."

"Hey!" The injured parties shouted.

"I'm kidding! Seriously though, watch for any outlandish behavior," Mirax instructed.

"Shouldn't be too hard," Axel muttered under her breath, drawing laughter from Marissa.

"We have to take this with some seriousness people," Mirax' responded, distressed.

"Hey, don't worry about it. Those vampires don't stand a chance. Nothing gets past us!" Axel said.

"Keep telling yourself that."

They all laughed as Axel left, Marissa quick behind her. When they were left to their own thoughts only one thing was on their minds: tomorrow. What would they see? Would they survive? No one could come up with a satisfactory answer. None of them slept easy that night. It would be a long time before any of them slept easy again.


	3. Chapter 3

Marissa jogged in place as she waited for her gym teacher Mrs. Toyota. She was in her school gym which is where she had her first period. She was totally prepared to watch the people around her for any bizarre behavior. The kids were acting just as strange as usual, but there was nothing new about that. None of the teachers had shown their faces yet.

Just as she had that thought, Mrs. Toyota walked into the gym. She always had a baseball bat slung over her shoulder and today was no different. She wasn't particularly tall, and had a blocky set, but she was still very intimidating. Most gym teachers are. She wasn't very fond of her students, and Marissa wasn't really all that fond of her. Most teachers at least tolerated their students (even Mr. Brown _tolerated _them), but Mrs. Toyota was extremely short on patience as well as stature.

The class was fairly normal until near the end of the period. About ten minutes until the bell, Marissa noticed that Mrs. Toyota was fighting what seemed like a war with a boy a year older than Marissa. He towered over his teacher, yet seemed slightly frightened. Marissa edged closer to get a clear view. Everyone else was making similar movements, so no one noticed her intense interest.

After several minutes of arguing, Mrs. Toyota came to the end of her patience. She swung her bat at the boy's head, stopping barely an inch from his temple. He looked at her in shock, the blood draining from his face.

"Next time you cross me," Mrs. Toyota whispered, "This bat won't stop."

One of the teachers blew their whistle and the whole class bolted for the doors, Marissa right with them. She contemplated the occurrence as she put away her gym uniform. It wasn't even second period and she already had something to report.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Axel sat in her desk in German listening to the movie, her eyes closed in the darkness. Her cousins had stayed over till one in the morning last night, and then her mom had made her clean everything up. In short she was exhausted. She had gotten about three hours of sleep last night. Through her exhaustion she heard a muttering in English from behind her.

She turned to glance over her shoulder and saw her teacher Ms. Deville muttering into her phone looking highly distressed. Axel briefly considered saying something, then discarded it. This was a good opportunity to observe. There was always a chance something would happen.

As she listened, Axel heard the voice of her teacher rising in pitch. At first it was perfectly normal, just rising slightly, but it continued to rise. Soon it had jumped something like an octave. Axel slowly turned her head to look at her worried teacher. As she stared Axel saw something move under Ms. Deville's blouse. She saw the outline that looked something like faerie wings. Could she possibly be an evil faerie? She certainly had some faerie like moments, and she was rather tiny. I definitely have to report this to my buddies, she thought as she turned her attention back to the movie.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mirax was writing, mostly oblivious to everything around her. She was in Spanish, and had been keeping an eye on her teacher, Ms. Juan.

Mckenzi leaned over her shoulder and whispered: "You only had to write a page, Mirax."

"I know, but I still have time, so I'm still writing," she responded.

"Mirax, you have seven pages. Don't you think that's a little overboard?"

Mirax stopped to count. "So I do," she said, seeming surprised. "I guess I'll stop now."

"Might be a good idea."

Mirax finished her sentence then closed her notebook. She _always_ wrote more than she was assigned, and in high school that was sometimes a lot.

"Ah, Mirax, you will never fail to amaze me with your over achiever attitude," she commented quietly.

"Thanks."

Just as Mckenzi started to respond, Ms. Juan called for quiet. She got no response. Mirax shushed Mckenzi and turned to watch our teacher intently. She called for quiet again slightly louder, still with no response. Mirax saw her anger building and watched intently, but she wasn't prepared for what came next. Ms. Juan ripped a thick towel she was holding in half without seeming to realize it. The class was dead quiet immediately and stayed that way the rest of the period. When the bell rang at the end of class, everyone rushed to the door and Mirax was right with them.

She met up with Axel in the hall and they walked together to choir. As they dodged the students in the hallways they talked about what had transpired.

"Did you see anything?" Mirax asked, not daring to talk above a whisper, "I know I did."

"Yeah I saw something. It was weird," Axel replied.

"Just out of curiosity, have you done anything that would get us into trouble?"

"What do you think," Axel retorted, sounding insulted.

"That's not what I meant. I was trying to say that we really need to stay away from anything that might get us into trouble," Mirax calmed her.

"Oh, I thought you were blaming me for yesterday."

"I just meant that we should try to stay out of the sight of the Browns as much as possible."

"I certainly agree with you there."

"Besides, as for blaming you, if the … event … yesterday led us to the truth, it was probably a good thing," Mirax muttered.  
"In that case, I was responsible," Axel claimed.

By this time they were sitting in the choir room, and just as Mirax raised her hand to gently hit Axel, the bell rang.

"Saved by the bell," Axel crowed. Mirax hit her anyway.

"Quiet class!" Mrs. Cloud called out over the chatter. "It's time to begin."

All through choir the girls watched their teacher as she led them through their practice. Nothing abnormal happened. The only abnormal thing about it was the fact that Mrs. Cloud was almost inhumanly beautiful and talented. That was hardly a crime though.

After class Mirax and Axel stayed to help set up chairs for the next class. When they were almost done, Mirax saw Mrs. Cloud walk into her office. She nudged Axel and they watched their teacher as inconspicuously as possible. Mirax hated the spying, but lives could be at stake here.

Mrs. Cloud went to the mirror in her office and checked her long black hair. She had a silver strip of hair just behind her right ear that rang the length of her hair. It hung nearly to her waist and was strait and even. She was taller than Mirax but shorter than Axel. The girls saw nothing abnormal at all, though they watched closely. Mirax slowly shook her head slowly.

"See you tomorrow!" They called together.

As they all but ran to their next class (two hours of core), that just happened to be upstairs on the other end of the school, they discussed between quick breaths the events of the day thus far.

"Ms. Juan has a very short temper and her attitude reminds me of that Spanish monster. We'll have to ask Marissa what it's called, I don't remember," Mirax summarized.

Axel followed suit, "Ms. Deville is definitely a faerie. Good or bad I can't tell, but she has wings and her voice raises pitch when she's upset."

"So does yours."

"Not like this, she jumped over an octave today," Axel retorted.

"That is impressive," Mirax admitted. "You know what? I'm starting to think you're right about this whole mess. More and more of our teachers seem related to some sort of mythical creature."

"Perhaps not so mythical, huh?"

"Yeah, perhaps not."

"Oh, dear," Axel muttered.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The bell rang a second after the girls walked into the room and dropped into their seats.

"Just in time," Mirax whispered. "He's watching us too closely. I'll bet he's just waiting for an excuse to get us in trouble."

"I thought you weren't convinced he's evil."

"I'm not, but it looks worse every period."

Mr. Jones shot a glare in their general direction, probably intended for the boys in front of them. It shut them up all the same. During core on Thursdays and Fridays they were allowed to go between all four classrooms and work on whatever they needed to finish from the week. The teachers usually stayed in their own rooms, but occasionally went to discuss something with their colleges. Mr. Sea especially tended to migrate from room to room. He was their science teacher and was really fun. All the kids loved him.

Today was Friday and the girls were finished with all their work. That meant they had four periods to spare. Plenty of time to observe. Mr. Brown took attendance then set them loose. The girls immediately went to the back corner of the room.

"We have to keep all four teachers under surveillance," Axel muttered. "The obvious problem is there are only three of us."

"Mr. Sea tends to wander," Mirax thought aloud. "We could all keep an eye on him."

"Who should go where? I don't like the idea of splitting up if this is going to get dangerous," Marissa commented.

"If we do this right it won't," Mirax replied. "Marissa, you should go with Ms. Skittles, she's very observant, but you're invisible. No problem there. Axel, you should take Mrs. Brown. She likes you, and you are less likely to pick a fight with her than any of our other teachers." She winced, "I guess that leaves me with Mr. Brown."

Axel rolled her eyes, "Come on, he likes you. You're not in any danger."

"Besides, why would they hurt us now? You would think they would have done it by now if they really are monsters," Marissa stated. "Why would they suddenly choose now?"

"Because we know," Axel said ominously.

"Know what?" Mr. Brown asked pleasantly.

Axel jumped violently and her hand shot to her mouth then dropped to her chest. Marissa quickly pretended to be writing and ignored him completely.

"Don't do that!" Axel gasped, breathing heavily.

"I apologize," he responded. "What were you discussing?"

"Our math assignment," Mirax answered quickly. "There was a problem that we were having trouble with. We just figured it out." She tried to hide her fear as she returned the piercing look he gave her.

"What was it?" he asked, still not convinced.

"What was what?" Axel returned, straining to be civilized and still breathing hard.

"The answer to the question."

"152," Marissa said, not looking up.

"Really? Well I need you to get to work."

"We will. We were just getting organized," Axel promised. It was perfectly true.

As Mr. Brown strode back to his desk they visibly relaxed. So did everyone in their general vicinity.

"He will check that you know," Mirax said. "Please tell me that wasn't some random number, Marissa."

"Nope," she grinned and held up her notebook. It was her math work with 152 underlined.

"You are a genius," Axel sighed.

Marissa just shrugged and walked out of the revolving door that joined their core classrooms. She grimaced over her shoulder at them as she left the room.

"We had better separate. He's watching us, "Mirax whispered.

They both looked to Mr. Brown. When he saw their look he quickly glanced down at his papers. Axel slid out of her seat and stalked to the door. She shot one last glare at Mr. Brown before heading to English.


	4. Chapter 4

Axel walked into Mrs. Brown's classroom and found her seat. She opened a book and pretended to read while actually keeping her teacher under tight surveillance. She hadn't been mock reading for long before Mrs. Brown noticed her hidden stare. She started to glide gracefully towards Axel, and the girl grumbled under her breath. Mrs. Brown gave her a scintillating smile, showing her perfect teeth. Axel smiled back, surprised by this sudden friendliness.

"Hello Axel," Mrs. Brown said through her smile, with a glint in her brown eyes.

"Hi," Axel muttered, feeling awkward in the overbearing presence of her teacher. She simply stared at Mrs. Brown trying to think of something to say. So much for inconspicuous.

"Have you finished all of your work for the week?" Mrs. Brown asked pleasantly, that glint still there.

"Yeah…," Axel started to say but before she could finish, a sudden uproar came from the other end of the room as one boy pushed a girl from her chair.

Mrs. Brown turned quickly from Axel, the fixed smile fading and the glint taking over completely. Her voice was perfectly pleasant as she ordered the boy from the room. He looked terrified as he slipped out the door. Mrs. Brown looked from Axel to Mr. Brown's room and back to Axel before following the boy.

Axel shuddered and sent a silent prayer towards the boy. He had had the gallantry to provoke their teacher's wrath, and now he had to pay the price. She wondered vaguely if she should follow her teacher, then decided against it. Instead she began to search the classroom for evidence against the Browns.

To her distinct disappointment, nothing suspicious turned up. All that she found was lesson plans and other teacher things. She finally turned to Mrs. Brown's desk and, with a fearful glance over her shoulder, began to search it. No one paid her any mind, they were all chatting with their friends.

Her rummaging turned up nothing but an expensive leather handbag and a bottle. The bottle appeared to be filled with a dark red liquid. The label read "pomegranate juice". She raised an eyebrow in inquisition. Definitely suspicious. She glanced over her shoulder once more to ensure no one was watching. She unscrewed the bottle with deft movements of her slender fingers. Axel sniffed the liquid then stifled the immediate gag reaction. The substance smelled horrible, like something that had been dead for months.

She scanned the bottle for an expiration date. She found nothing on the bottle, neither nutritional information nor an expiration date. That immediately raised warning flags. What kind of product gave its buyers no information?

After a moment of slight hesitation, during which she expelled all her doubts and kept herself from imagining what Mirax would say when she found out, Axel tipped the bottle and allowed a tiny amount of the liquid to slide into her hand. She was surprised at the liquids thickness. She swirled the liquid around with her finger, investigating its properties.

The sudden realization hit her hard. _Blood! _Vampires drink blood. She wondered how she had missed this. Mrs. Brown (and probably her husband) carried an emergency stash of blood. Axel's hand shook as she grabbed a Kleenex and wiped the blood from her hand.

Mrs. Brown stepped into the room with the boy close behind. He nearly ran into her when she stopped dead as she hit the threshold of the door, her nostrils flaring. _Blast!_ Axel thought as she moved silently to the door. As her teacher moved towards her desk Axel turned and bolted out the door

Axel couldn't make sense of the chaotic thoughts swirling in her head. Mrs. Brown had noticed the fetid odor of the blood as soon as she came through the door, proving that she had an excellent sense of smell. As Mirax would say: inhumanly so. Axel searched for a safe place to put the Kleenex. She settled for dropping it out an open window in the science room. This was definitely something to report.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Marissa sat, jaded, in a wooden chair. Who knew keeping an eye on your teachers could be so incredibly dull?

Nothing out of the ordinary seemed to be happening. Nothing besides the monotonous chatter of her fellow students and the muffled shuffling of papers was there to entertain her. This … was pointless. Why couldn't she have been assigned to a more interesting teacher?

Marissa laid her head on her folded arms with a deep sigh. Maybe she shouldn't just watch the teachers. Perhaps the students were in on it to. She would watch them for odd behavior as well. She scoffed. Not exactly a difficult task.

With that in mind she turned her head to watch a group of girls. They seemed fairly normal, chatting and gossiping among themselves. No red eyes as her friends had described, no sever temper problems, nothing. Suddenly a girl with golden hair turned from her friends as if she were insulted. She pulled out a tiny makeup mirror and Marissa rolled her eyes. She ran her hand through her hair while staring into the compact mirror. She then pulled out a small brush and began to swirl it in the container.

Marissa looked closer at the fine sparkling material that overflowed from the container. It was gold and silver and spun in eddies of wind that came through the window. It looked strangely like dust and was almost hypnotizing. Perhaps it was faerie dust? Her theory was confirmed as she detected an alien movement from beneath the girl's shirt, between her shoulder blades. The dust melted into the girl's skin as she brushed it on.

Ms. Skittles interrupted the girl's beauty session, and of course the girl protested, her friends disappearing. Marissa watched intensely as they continued to argue. Marissa knew this would not end quietly; her teacher wasn't one to tolerate insolence. They argued back and forth for quite some time and as they did Marissa detected a subtle change in both their appearances.

Ms. Skittles' ears began to sharpen into points. Her face, already distorted in frustration, became a horrific mask. Her eyes narrowed into slits and her nose sharpened. The girl's face became very similar. Marissa shuddered at their expressions. That was hardly natural. They continued to argue.

Marissa averted her gaze and stood up. She was done with just sitting here. She was going to go to science. This was something to report, sure, but she was utterly bored.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mirax watched her teacher closely. Nearly as closely as he watched her. She sighed. This was going to be difficult. Mr. Brown would be extremely careful not to give anything away. He would try to mask even the most minute detail of their secrete reality. Possible secrete reality. Mirax sighed once more. Perhaps the other would have something to report.

The atmosphere in the class seemed ordinary. No abnormal events yet. Mirax leaned against the counter and looked up from her book. Mr. Brown was eyeing her suspiciously, reluctant to look back at his documents when she met his gaze. So much for surveillance, she thought hopelessly.

Mirax decided to actually read instead of just pretending to. Mr. Brown saw right through her charade anyway. It was useless watching someone who knew you were watching them. She dropped into a chair that gave her a good view of the classroom.

After about ten minutes of sustained reading, a group of boys started getting rather loud. Mirax glanced up at them thinking they must be insane. It looked like a fight was about to start. Oh dear, she thought. Mr. Brown took immediate notice of the disturbance and stood ever so gracefully. Why anyone would start a fight in his class was totally beyond Mirax.

Mr. Brown strode to the group and pushed the boys roughly apart. One stumbled backward over a desk. At any other time it would have been humorous. Mr. Brown gave them a look that caused them to cower. He reprimanded them in a deathly silent voice. As she watched in cautious interest, Mirax saw her teachers eyes flash to a fiery red. It was gone in an instant and Mirax was surprised she had caught it. As he sternly scolded the boys Mirax saw him clenching and unclenching his hands repeatedly.

When he was done hanging the boys out to dry she saw him walk to the trash can and brush a finely ground dust into the trash can. When he sat back down to his desk, he reached for his pencil only to find it gone. He sighed and rested his head on his fist.

Mirax chocked back a gasp as she realized the dust had formerly been a mechanical pencil. Mr. Brown's eyes flashed to her as she struggled to hide her shock. They were filled with worry, frustration, hatred, and what looked almost like amusement. The hatred was most prominent though.

Mirax brushed her red hair in front of her face and hurried into the science room. She had something to report. Even so, it felt like she was risking her life to find out the truth.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mrs. Brown watched with narrow eyes as Axel bolted from the room. She looked around the room as the boy she had reprimanded slipped back to his friends. Nothing seemed out of place. She _smelled _it though. It burned her nostrils as she inhaled. It could only be hers. No fresh blood smelled that way, no fresh blood smelled rotten. She walked to her desk, careful not to seem rushed. As she inspected the bottle she felt an extreme relief that Ken hadn't been here. He would have done something rash.

She found the bottle not quite where she had left it. She lifted it to in front of her face and saw fingerprints that were not her own. She inhaled and smelled Axel's scent. She carefully replaced the bottle, reigning in her immediate anger and fear. Those accursed girls were on to them, and she was helpless to do anything about it.

She walked into her husband's classroom through the teacher door just in time to see Mirax rush out, just as Axel had. Mrs. Brown went to stand behind Mr. Brown and clutched his shoulder as he pinched the bridge of his nose. She couldn't tell him now, of course, but she felt the need to scream. She settled for simply taking his hand in hers with a grip that would crumble a diamond into tiny fragment of dust. It didn't faze him; in fact he returned the pressure with even more force. He looked up at her in a way that made her shudder. It said very plainly, _we need to talk._


End file.
